Lesson 06 Being A Minority Discussion Forum

The following assignment exposes you to a new situation, requires you to carefully observe your surroundings and asks you to both describe what you felt and what other individuals might feel to have you among them.

(This assignment is adapted from Dorothy Marck, 1989, Organizational Behavior Experiences and Cases. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company.)

Your assignment is to go by yourself (you may not take anyone with you) to a place you have never been before, and to observe what you see (and to participate, if appropriate). Please note that these two conditions (doing something you have not done before and doing it by yourself) are important. The goal is to expose yourself to a culturally or ethnically different environment from the one(s) you're used to. After your field experience,

write a 500-word paper that includes the following:

Date and address of where the experience took place

Length of time you were there

Brief description of the setting

Your reaction to the situation in terms of your behavior/feelings/reactions

The reaction of other individuals toward you

What this experience teaches you about being different from others in your environment

How such an experience might influence your development if you were to live or work in such a setting for a major portion of your life

Relevance of theory and readings in any of the texts

Concluding comments